Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy

Recently Olaf at The Prairie Wranglers complained to Kate of Small Dead Animals, that she rated him as “left” on the political spectrum. In the Blogging Tory’osphere, them’s fightin’ words, and Olaf shot back with this:

I’m definitely not on the left if thats what you’re implying, and I take offense to the notion.

Well, on Olaf’s fine blog (which incidentally I Read Naked In A Bubble Bath While Eating Cherry Ice Cream*), I found myself classified as “leftish” myself. I don’t know what that says about Olaf’s opinion of this ‘ol moderate, centrist conservationist, but I think it’s my bloggin’ duty to take offense to the notion that I’m “left wing” (especially since I’d never consider voting for the current NDP). And in the ensuing fuss, I’ll also link to some blogs that I read, thus driving up traffic for everyone involved.

“Best Leftish Blogs
*Abandoned Stuff by Saskboy”
I’m not sure if the word “Best” takes the full sting away from being called “Left” as well. I strive to be multi-partisan, and do so in my voting too. I vote Green Party federally, and Saskatchewan Liberal provincially. And it’s not trendy in the current political climate to be centrist, so I’ve let people online assume I’m “left” if that helps them to disagree with my material better. It’s particularly hard for many Americans online to get their head around an option between Democrat and Republican. Explaining moderate views to a Bushchimp callin’ moonbat, or a Kerry Swiftboating rightwingnut, is a bit like explaining a tennis game to a cat… Their eyes will avoid yours, and half way through the explanation they’ll nod that they understand, just to get you out of their face so they can get back to bobbing their head back and forth. OK, so cat’s don’t nod, or watch tennis much, but you get the idea I hope?

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In the vein of non-partisanship, BPoC had an interesting link to Pollutionwatch. Now if a Kerry Swiftboater saw that link on a blog, they’d instantly label BPoC a “left” blog, because it’s not trendy for Conservatives to give a poop about pollution.

But if I pointed out how SaskPower is #3 on the list of Greenhouse Gas polluters in Canada, but that we need to consult with industry over several years to minimize the short term impact on business deliverables from the Crown Utility [which should be privatized by the way], then I’d get a bunch of Bushchimp callin’ moonbats in my face about how we need to tear down SaskPower’s coal plants and don’t even THINK about nuclear as the replacement!

*Sigh* it’s not easy being a Green, Red, pro-nuclear, centrist, moderate conservationist in the blogosphere. It’s not easy being ‘tween.

Stephen Glauser weighs in on the idea of blind party/side loyalty:
“A vote simply for a party is potentially a bad vote for your riding”.

In the same way, I think that making someone feel uncomfortable about picking a good policy from the “other side” of the political spectrum, is not helping bloggers to discuss political issues effectively. Our disagreements are upsetting the political balance in the country. We can’t trust politicians anymore to get non-partisan work done in parliamentary committees. So maybe us bloggers should try to be better role models for them?